Originally Posted by
MindfulMan 
Why does it have to be "life and death" before medication is OK?
I'm not going to die if I've had surgery and don't take pain medications of some sort, but I'm going to take them if possible. For the record, I LOATHE the way opioid pain meds make me feel, I take them just until the pain becomes tolerable.
But this applies to a lot of psych meds. You might not die or commit suicide without an antidepressant, but if it helps, why not take it? I take Wellbutrin, and about a month after I started it I completely lost my craving for nicotine (I'd picked up smoking in rehab again after quitting for 9 years).
It doesn't have to be. I didn't express myself very well. I apologize for that.
I deal with psych meds in my work, but that doesn't make me anyone's expert. There are also plenty of available resources, including a consultation with a psychiatrist or a psychopharmacologist. I'll tell people who ask me about medication what antidepressants have done for me. I haven't had any obvious, unwanted, long-term side effects. Everyone has a different experience, which is one among other things that we cannot know in advance.
Either choice carries significant consequences which are, again, something that we cannot know in advance. I think it's important to talk about our resistance and our expectations before making the decision to medicate or not to medicate. And about our fears. Giving up such a powerful, familiar, and sometimes all-consuming state of being as depression can be -- after months, years, or lots of years of suffering -- is not always as simple as it might seem.
Taking medication while feeling under duress to do so usually doesn't work out very well. Avoiding medications for fear of losing an increasingly destructive way of being can often make things much worse. There are other, very personal, considerations for a lot of people as well.
I can talk about my experiences with medication, but other people's decisions are not mine to make. I don't know that people don't end up making the choice without taking in other people's suggestions. Most of us humans don't take advice very well.